Generally speaking, reporting can suck. Suuuuuuck. You toil for hours putting together a huge report that your client/boss will either tear apart or barely glance at... What's worse? You never know which of those it will be!
As marketers, you work tirelessly to improve your business - however - rarely does anyone outside of your team know what you do, how you add value or why you are even in this meeting?!? It's time you start to show them. Start by looking at your reporting from a value added standpoint. Tell the tale of where you create measurable, tangible impact on the business and you can show the rest of the folks in your company (or your clients) why you're in that meeting and why they couldn't do it without you!
Center your report around value and goals. Let's explore a little further:
Still with us? Awesome. Let's dig in and see how you can make metrics (good or bad) work for you.
This one sounds like a no brainer, but it can be easier said than done. If you aren't going to pack your report with metrics that resonate with your audience the next two steps aren't going to help you. But how do you do that you ask? Great question! Start by determining:
Let's start with #1 - Know your audience. If the boss is sales driven and motivated by growth don't kick your report off with how many Facebook likes you got this month. One of marketing's main jobs is delivering quality leads - you did that right? Start there and back into your strategy that created those leads.
Moving on to #2 - Every business has a culture and certainly priorities important to everyone. Make sure you cover how you are safeguarding and building upon what matters to the organization. For instance, maybe it's important within your firm to be looked upon as thought leaders. Show how you have been contributing to groups on LinkedIn or Quora and the traffic, blog followers and leads that you have acquired as a direct result.
Lastly, #3 - You're the expert; reporting is where you get to make sure they know that. Introduce a new metric, or interesting statistic that they will find relevant but didn't know they should be considering. You get to show that you are thinking beyond the constraints of a standard report and the team all gets a little smarter. Now they are starting to see why you are at that table; get it?!
The news doesn't have to be good all the time. Most marketers dread reporting on a missed goal or a dip in some KPI. That makes sense, especially if they are just relaying the info. "We did good before, now we did bad. Thank you, drive through." But not you, you are going to use that information to set the tone for improvement and reinforce that you are constantly monitoring and optimizing your campaigns.
Every metric you report on - good or bad - should have a therefore attached to it. If not, why are you talking about it? Remember, this is all about showing value through education. If there are metrics in your report that you just read and move on - delete them. The report needs to be focused on actionable insights relevant to the business.
"This is performing fantastically, therefore, we've created a few more similar campaigns borrowing from what we have learned here."
"This campaign has under performed, we looked into why and learned that our audience just doesn't react well to ______, what they tend to respond to is ______. We are optimizing the campaign with that in mind moving forward."
There you have it. Remember to start from a value standpoint when you build your reports. Are you talking about metrics that matter withing your organization? Are you educating the audience on business relevant insights and the steps that you are taking as a result? If you want some help getting started don't forget to download your free guide to